Cebu travel guide

Cebu City is the capital city of Cebu, Philippines.  Cebu, the province, is home to the famous otap, danggit and even Philippine made guitars.  It is flanked by the Bohol province in the Southeast, the Negros Island in the East and Leyte in the West.  It is bounded by the straits of Tañon and Bohol on both sides.

Cebu is a 225 km narrow island surrounded by 167 smaller islands which include Mactan, the seat of the Spanish occupation.  Some of the smaller islands have been considered virgin, thus making it a target for tourists whenever they come to the area.

It is a typical tropical island known for its limestone plateaus, coastal plains, narrow coastlines, rugged mountain ranges and predominant rolling hills. 

It is one of the most developed provinces in the country and has one of the largest metropolitan cities in the nation.  It caters to education, trade and businesses.  Shopping malls, five-star hotels, sand beaches, convention centers and golf courses are found in Cebu making it one of the highly urbanized provinces in the Philippines.

Languages used

People of Cebu use the Cebuano dialect as their primary means of communication.  It was hard for most of their people to learn the Filipino language which even extended to some points of pushing in Congress that Cebuano be the national language in the Philippines. When you tour around the city, only a few will understand the Filipino dialect.  Your option as a Filipino tourist is to speak the English language.  For foreigners, this would be an advantage.

Population

There are around 3 million people comprising the entire Cebu Province, approximately 800,000 of which live in the City of Cebu.  Some of these are migrants from various provinces in the country who found Cebu their second home and decided to try their luck in the place. 

Economy

Cebu has opened various employment opportunities in the area with the existence of business establishments and infrastructures.  People of Cebu are employed in electronics, computer shops, chemical processing, food processing, furniture business, fashion and other sources of employment.

There are 50 commercial banks, 27 rural banks, nine savings banks, five government banks and two offshore banks which cater to all banking transactions of the locals.

  

Education

Cebu has over 1,000 schools (public and private), 200 secondary schools, 9 universities, 29 colleges and 10 work force training centers.  It has an average annual population of 130,000 students for college alone.

It is considered as the main educational focal point in the Visayas.  It is where most Visayans would choose to pursue their college education.  Included in the nine universities of the province is the University of the Philippines Cebu, which is a branch of the prominent University of the Philippines System.  This being so, makes it one of the hottest spots for aspiring and deserving students who value education most in their lifetime.

Others

Cebu is comprised of three highly-urbanized cities, six component cities, 44 municipalities, 1,203 barangays and eight congressional districts.  It is the home of three cable television stations, seven local television channels, 20 FM and 13 AM radio stations and a variety of local and international print media.  It is also seat to the Mactan Airport.